We've Got Your Back
by mattgerrard
Summary: Spoilers ahead: this is my "headcanon" ending for Mass Effect 3. Shepard's life is slipping away as he tries to arm the Crucible. Harbinger is trying to persuade him to choose synthesis. Miranda would do anything to save Shepard, but she needs help, and they're running out of time.
1. The Crucible

**_Introduction_**

_This is my headcanon ending to Mass Effect 3, and my personal love letter to the game series and its characters. Off the bat, I want to say that the Mass Effect team did an awesome job, and their ending was epic and legendary. This is just how I would have done it._

_I added some details for those who've never played the game, but really, most of this won't make sense if you haven't. So, apologies on that._

_Our story picks up from Shepard and Anderson sitting next to each other just after Shepard opens the Citadel's arms. The Crucible is about to dock._

_Some essential information:_

_Miranda is Shepard's love interest._

_The quarians and geth make peace._

_The beam run team is Miranda and Tali. Wounded during the battle, they're currently in the _Normandy_'s medical bay._

_Miranda is the _Normandy_'s first officer. Ashley is the second officer. Garrus is on the guns. The rest of the squad are doing their thing wherever they are._

_The squad from Mass Effect 2 is on the _Normandy_ as well as those from Mass Effect 3. The team also has two new members: Randall Ezno and Inali Renata, whom we meet in _Mass Effect: Infiltrator_. Inali was saved and fully recovered from her transformation by Cerberus._

_This story contains actual dialogue from the games that I wove in. Needless to say, those words are the property of Bioware, I own none of it, and this story was written and provided for free solely for entertainment purposes._

_On with the story!_

. . .

"...I'm proud of you."

"Thank you, sir."

The room became more silent, if that were even possible. Shepard realized why. He couldn't hear Anderson breathing.

"Anderson?"

Anderson's chest had stopped moving. Tears rolled down Shepard's face. His parents had died while he was just a boy. Shepard remembered when the polite man in the uniform had come to his aunt's house to let her and young John know that his mommy and daddy wouldn't be coming home. Anderson had been the closest he'd had to a father figure. Not that he'd ever told him that. He'd seen so many people die that he couldn't even count them anymore. He'd cried for many of them, but not like this.

A dreadnought exploded like a star near Earth's horizon. Passing over the glow, the Reaper that had fired the shot opened its tendrils as it turned to look for more.

Shepard looked up at the ceiling and screamed, "Damn it, end it already!" His voice echoed off the walls. No one had spoken inside this room in thousands of years. The way things were going, no one would in thousands more, either. His body, Anderson's and the Illusive Man's would be the only testament left that humans had ever existed at all.

Shepard felt the deck bump as the Crucible docked. A puzzle unspooled in the holographic instrument panel. Shepard stood. He didn't want to leave his friend, but he realized his work wasn't done yet.

Shepard faced the panel. He felt the tingle in the back of his neck that he always got when his prothean neurology kicked in. It wasn't a puzzle. It was the final sequence to activate the Crucible, prepared by a prothean.

Without knowing how, he knew what he had to do. Shepard began tapping glyphs on the interface. Superstrings of dark energy began unwinding. Connecting. Synchronizing. Simultaneously he saw subatomic particles combining with each other, while the mass relays sang radioactive music, a coherent pulse of energy the likes of which hadn't been seen since creation.

"Stop," a child's voice said.

His world flashed white. Outside, his eyes flickered gold like they did on the colony where they met Javik. Shepard froze.

Shepard stood on the top of a hill overlooking a burned-out wasteland. Twisted bones of ancient temples reached toward a blackened sky. The boy from his dreams stood next to him. In the strange way that dreams have, Shepard didn't ask why.

. . .

Hackett grabbed hold of his station as the _Iowa_ shuddered under a Reaper weapon hit.

"Shield failure! Overload, starboard capacitors!"

"Engineering, shut down engine four!" the Iowa's captain cried. "Shut it down, now!"

The _Saratoga_'s fighter wing wove through the Reaper's fire and let go with a volley of missiles that targeted its maw. Half of the missiles made it through. The Reaper bucked with explosive indigestion. The _Iowa_'s shields came back on line and it returned fire with a blast that knocked it in the head. Every ship within sight of it could feel it growl as it turned to face the dreadnought again.

The _Iowa_, _Yamato_, _Vanguard_ and _Churchill_ opened fire with their main batteries as the _Saratoga_'s wing hit the Reaper again. One of its limbs blew off. The rest of the Fifth fleet's combined fire took off another.

As the bridge officers tried to keep them alive, Hackett leaned over the communications officer. "Shepard! Shepard, this is Hackett. The Crucible isn't firing."

"The channel is open, sir, but that doesn't mean he can hear us."

"Keep trying."

He brought up the communications feed and patched in the _Normandy_. "_Normandy_, this is Hackett."

"Normandy here. This is Lieutenant Commander Williams." A burst of static. "Damn it! Adams, get a team down there to seal that breach! Sorry, admiral, we're a bit busy."

"Lieutenant Commander, there's something wrong at the Citadel. Shepard made it but the Crucible isn't firing. I need you to get a team ready in case he fails."

"Do we even know where Shepard is?"

EDI interrupted, "I have been trying to locate Commander Shepard's position. I detected movement at the base of the Citadel beneath the tower—"

"Keep on it, EDI. Let me know when you find something. We'll do what we can, admiral."

. . .

Joker shimmied the Normandy between razor slices of beam fire from a handful of oculi, the killer satellites they encountered when they had attacked the Collector base. A squadron of turian fighter craft scratched their back for them with a quick burst of cannon fire. Ashley issued a quick thanks. She watched the battle, listening to com traffic and looking for new targets.

Behind her, the elevator opened. Miranda limped into the CIC. Her armor had seen better days. Ashley said, "I thought you were in the medical bay."

"Bandages and medigel are all that's holding me together. What's our status?"

"We've got a hole in the lower deck. Engineering's on it. Shepard made it to the Citadel, but the Crucible isn't firing."

She smiled. She knew he'd make it! "All right. Get a team together. You, Jack, Grunt, Vega, and Tali. Get to the shuttle bay and stand by. I'll be there as soon as we've pinpointed his location." If there was even a chance John was alive, there was no way she would stay away.

"Isn't Tali wounded too?"

"Her suit's healing her faster than anything we have. We'll need our best tech in case we need to bypass any internal systems."

"Got it." Ashley hurried off.

Miranda toggled the internal com line. "EDI, scan the Citadel for Reaper com traffic using the code fragment we found on Rannoch as a template. If Shepard's encountering resistance, that might tell us where the trouble is."


	2. Bargaining with the Devil

"This is your future, if you continue," the boy said.

Shepard looked around. He imagined he could hear thunder coming from a ravaged place on the other side of the world. "Where are we?" he asked.

"On one of many worlds that suffered through the chaos, before the harvest."

Shepard blinked. Far away, he saw spidery synthetics crawling over the bodies of creatures that had looked like green, four-limbed bipeds, some as high as two meters tall. Shepard heard the emptiness of the synthetics' thoughts. _Our creators are gone. Our purpose was to serve the creators. What is our purpose now? _

Shepard remembered the panel. The Crucible. The panel was gone. He didn't belong here. He fought to concentrate. He tried to remember the room. How it looked. Anderson's body. He said to the child, "I need to use the Crucible, or we're going to end up like this. Help me."

"No. You will not. You must ascend. It is the only way."

He didn't understand why, but something about this child enraged him. It was only a boy, but it wasn't acting like one. "Preserved... ascension? I don't understand. The protheans believed that the Crucible could destroy the Reapers."

"The Crucible will end the cycle. Chaos will return." With a sound like autumn leaves, the burned-out world vanished, replaced by another, and another, and another. "We hold the chaos back. You must ascend."

"The cycle... the _Reapers_?" Shepard felt like someone had poured ice water all over his body. He grit his teeth. He wasn't talking to a boy at all. "Harbinger."

Shepard shouted, "Get the hell out of my head!"

The vision shattered and Shepard was back in the control room. He felt anciently tired. How much blood had he lost? His armor meekly tried to keep him alive, but it was barely working.

The panel waited for him to continue. A transparent, sparkling version of the boy stood next to him. Shepard turned back to the panel. As he started again, the puzzle cascaded. Grew more complex. At first Shepard thought he had done something wrong, but then he saw harmonies and layers inside the cascade. It wasn't more complex; it was gaining strength. It was working.

Shepard wobbled on his feet. He grabbed hold of the console as his ears roared and a haze of dots swam over his eyes. The pain from the wound in his side stabbed him back to clarity. He felt tired.

He had to keep working. He hoped he finished before he passed out.

Or died.

. . .

"Miranda, I have narrowed down the region of possibility to approximately one cubic kilometer at the base of the Citadel. These are areas impenetrable to humans, in contact with the transport beam, and within Shepard's movement distance since he arrived."

It was still too big. They would have minutes. Maybe not even that. "What about a probe?"

EDI paused. Miranda smiled. That had to be a good sign!

"An array of probes in a search pattern could provide seismic telemetry of those regions. A rough schematic."

"Do it. Fire as many as you need. We're not saving them for anything."

"Understood."

Miranda swallowed. The tactical display looked grim. With the fleet going toe to toe with the Reapers, casualties were mounting. The Reapers would know they had been in a fight, but it didn't matter if they were all dead.

. . .

"Life must be preserved. Our purpose is the preservation of life through ascension," the shining boy said.

Shepard kept working. He felt cold, and he had to lean on the console to stay up. He moved glyphs with both hands, placing them on instinct. The puzzle looked like a fractal unfolding in front of his eyes. He could almost feel the floor vibrate with the building power.

Through the transparent display, he saw two Reapers wither and stop moving under massive bombardment. Bits of them floated aimlessly. Shepard would have cheered, but a dozen ships from the fleet died just where he was looking. Beyond that, he could see a patch of Earth burning. It looked like everything between Berlin and Paris was on fire.

He swallowed. His breaths even felt cold. "Why don't you talk to me in that satanic rumble you usually use?" he asked. He already knew the answer: because a boy's life mattered to him.

Harbinger continued, "That which you call Reapers were created to bring an end to chaos. Organics create synthetics to exceed their physical limitations. Synthetics evolve and surpass their creators. By harvesting organics and synthetics, we prevent their loss from existence, and allow new life to flourish."

Now it wanted to talk. After millions of people had died, _now_ it wanted to talk. "Brilliant. You have an orderly cycle of armageddon. We wouldn't want it to be messy. Did it occur to you that we're all dead either way?"

"Not dead. Ascended. We harvest genetic and synthetic life. Your bodies, your knowledge, and your creations are reborn in Reaper form."

Shepard would have made a fist if he could spare the time. "You make 'reducing our bodies to goo' sound so vulgar."

His vision hazed over again. Shepard grabbed the console before he fell down. He coughed, and the act hurt so bad that he cried out. It was all he could do to stay on his feet. Shepard moaned.

"You are an anomaly. Your presence here creates an opportunity. You can create peace between synthetics and organics."

Shepard forced himself to breathe slowly. Push, soldier. Push! Stand up!

"You can end the cycle, and succeed where we have not."

He came back to his feet. Shepard stared at the puzzle. He could see similarities in between organic and synthetic radiation. Either he was hallucinating, or Harbinger was telling the truth.

"How?" Shepard asked.


	3. The Knowledge of Eons

Liara and Miranda held on as Joker threw the Normandy hard evasive. Miranda heard the _Normandy_'s guns firing again. Hopefully something evil just died. Garrus was having a busy day. Liara peered at a holographic map of the base of the Citadel that EDI had created. Liara said, "It reminds me of ancient prothean temples and government buildings. The structure is similar."

"The Citadel was made by the Reapers, not the protheans."

"We all stand on the ashes of those who came before us. The protheans copied Citadel architecture. There were prothean cities whose layouts showed clear similarities with causeways on the Citadel."

"All right, then. How does it help us?"

"In the temples, these areas would be galleries. Then, like spokes on a wheel—as we see here—there is an approach to a central altar, or court, or focus." Liara pointed. "If Shepard is alive, he'll be there."

"EDI, scan for access points. Airlocks. Vents. Anything in that area that we can use to get inside."

. . .

Another dreadnought fell. Hackett said, "First wing, fall back." The geth and the quarians. "Second wing, move up." The turians, asari and the Alliance. They needed to rotate the ships to give shields time to recharge and damage control teams time to respond. They were still dropping like flies. The _Churchill_ went down before his eyes.

He looked at the communications officer, who shook his head. Nothing from Shepard.

If they didn't hear from him soon, none of this would matter.

. . .

Shepard watched as capstones of mathematical symmetry melted under pools of alignment. He didn't understand it, but the prothean side of his mind did. He was close. It was a good thing, too. He felt like he'd just run a marathon. It was too bad Tali and Liara weren't here. Between the tech and the prothean history they'd eat this up.

He could see what the Crucible was now: a junction box, a device that synchronized and fired the power of the mass relays through the Citadel, which was the nerve center of the Reapers—which explained why it had never been destroyed, barely even damaged, across all of the cycles of extinction. Someone must have asked why. Firing the Crucible would be like using defibrillator paddles directly on someone's brain.

Ouch.

"Synthesis is the final evolution of all life," the boy explained. Shepard shook his head. _Harbinger_, he reminded himself. "The radiation released by the Crucible will destroy us. It can also alter the matrix of organic and synthetic life into a unified matrix."

Shepard kept working. He also listened to what Harbinger had to say. He wasn't a murderer. Even to this bastard, he would listen.

"Organics seek perfection through technology. Synthetics seek perfection through understanding. Organics will be perfected by integrating fully with synthetic technology. Synthetics will finally have full understanding of organics. We have tried a similar solution in the past, but it has always failed. It is not something that can be... forced."

Harbinger's pause caught Shepard's attention. He remembered Ezno's friend, Inali, and what Cerberus had done to her. "You tried to force organics to help you reach synthesis?"

"Yes. But the organics were not ready."

He returned to the puzzle with renewed strength. "That's putting it fucking mildly."

The explosions outside were happening faster. Come on. Come on.

"The Reapers will cease their harvest, and the civilizations, preserved in their forms, will be connected to all of us. This will be lost if you continue."

Lost. _Knowledge_ would be lost. Shepard had heard enough. Frankly, he was pissed off.

He had to brace himself on the console with one hand. His legs weren't enough. "Tell me one of their names," Shepard said.

Silence.

"A member of the lost civilizations. Do you know one of them? Just one?"

"Names are irrelevant." Out of the corner of his eye, Shepard thought he saw a flicker of red in the boy's shimmering color.

"You chose the name Harbinger. Your vanguard chose Sovereign."

"If you destroy us the cycle of destruction between organics and synthetics will begin again."

"I've got a synthetic in love with a human and the geth and quarians have made peace. Next?"

"You need us."

"Like we need a hole in the head."

"We have the combined knowledge of thousands of cycles."

"You haven't done jack shit with it."

"You will destroy yourselves."

"You first."

"Through synthesis you can transcend your limits."

"We like our limits, thank you very fucking much."

"You can become stronger!"

"I'll go to the gym."

"Guide your own evolution!"

"I like surprises."

"You would throw away the chance at defeating death itself!" Harbinger sounded enraged.

Shepard pointed at the Reaper child like he was putting an insolent brat in his place. "Or else what? You'll kill us all?"

Silence.

Shepard's hand shook. He couldn't waste time like this. Outside, another nova flash of light announced the loss of a quarian ship.

"Fuck you. This conversation's over. You've got a date in hell and I'm going to make sure you're not late."

Shepard moved the last pieces into place. He saw the alternatives.

He could control the Reapers. They would become his hands. His tools. Harbinger hadn't even mentioned that one, of course. Shepard's essence would dissolve into the system, overlay on top of this... thing's... and he would become their master.

He could rewrite the DNA of every creature in the galaxy. Synthetics would gain the eccentricities, the millions of microscopic joys and flaws, that organics cherished. Organics would lose their shackling to mortal flesh, gain networked intelligence, and the ability to live beyond the limits of their bodies.

Or he could bring it all to an end. Wipe the slate clean. Including the geth, and EDI.

_Shit. There's always a price, isn't there?_

He said he wasn't a murderer. Was synthesis truly their destiny?

The knowledge of eons. Limitless existence.

Shepard used to play baseball with his parents. On the day they died, after the tears, he had gone outside and thrown a baseball at a wall until his aunt came and told him it was time to go to bed. He'd kept that ball and mitt until the Collectors destroyed the Normandy SR-1.

What did he tell Miranda? We all have someone else's DNA, but our choices are ours. Something like that. All our struggles.

Shepard thought of all things he'd ever wanted, that he'd never gotten. He'd wanted his parents back. The buddies he lost on Akuze. Kaiden. The things we never have define us as much as the things that we overcome.

Shepard thought of the combined knowledge of thousands of cycles, thrown away. He imagined a mass murderer offering him wine in a chalice made of gold.

A smile curled around his mouth. Actually, if they truly were just instruments of harvest, like Harbinger said, then the Grim _Reaper_ offering him such a cup would be a more appropriate image.

"You don't have a crystal ball on our future. And I don't even like wine," Shepard said.

He moved the last piece into place.


	4. We're Going In

"Admiral! We have a power buildup on the Crucible. According to Dr. Bryson's calculations, if the buildup continues, it'll reach firing threshold in five minutes."

"HOT DAMN! All fleets! The Crucible is armed! Disengage and head to the rendezvous point. I repeat, disengage and get the hell out of here!"

. . .

Miranda's heart leaped as she saw the power spike from the Crucible. Then her jaw fell open as Hackett's order to withdraw came through. She was about to give him a piece of her mind when an ear-bleeding whistle pierced the com channel. A hologram of Shepard, flickering red, appeared on the bridge—and on the bridge of every ship in the fleet. Battered and bloody, barely standing, his arms trembled. He looked like death. His eyes stared in desperation. Miranda gasped.

"If anyone can hear my voice... the Crucible effect will destroy the geth... all... all synthetic life. Go..." Shepard's knees buckled. The transmission flickered.

"John!" Miranda cried.

The transmission cut out.

Miranda jumped on the command frequency. "This is the _Normandy_. We're going after Shepard." She turned back to the CIC. "EDI, can you use that transmission to tell us where he is?"

"Shepard is located at the center of the 'focus' referenced by Dr. T'Soni."

"Joker, get us down there. Garrus, I need you to punch a hole in the Citadel close to Shepard but not so close we kill him."

"I thought you were going to give me something challenging, Miranda," Garrus replied.

The _Normandy_ took a barrel roll around a hellish crossfire. Miranda noticed geth ships in the fray. Joker leveled out. Miranda zoomed in on a schematic of the target area. If Garrus blew the shot, John was dead. She felt like she couldn't breathe.

"I have always wanted to take a shot at the Citadel," Garrus snickered.

Garrus barely touched the triggers. Twin cannons that had gutted the Collector cruiser fired a whisper, gold streaks of superheated metal that blew the surface hull off two compartments, and very little else.

Miranda was stunned. Later, she couldn't believe she actually said, "Holy shit! What a shot!"

"And that, my friend, is why we do calibrations."

. . .

Admiral Hackett sighed as he heard Lawson say she was going after Shepard. If he didn't have an armada to save, he would have done the same thing. He was about to tell the _Iowa_'s pilot to jump away when hails came pouring into the command channel.

"_Normandy_, this is Captain Fob, SSV _Nuremberg_. If you're going after Shepard, we've got your back."

"This is Matriarch Lidanya, _Destiny Ascension_. We owe Shepard."

"This is Captain Holland, SSV _Sarajevo_. Count us in."

"Commander Phillips, _SSV Saratoga_ Fighter Wing. You think you're going to have all the fun?"

"Admiral Meridus, _Indomitable_. We are with you."

Ship after ship, fleet after fleet, the responses came in. Finally, the one that Hackett would remember on his dying day: "The geth fleet has achieved consensus. We will not leave until Commander Shepard is safe."

"Dear God," Hackett whispered.

The com officer said, "Sir, no one's leaving."

Hackett wiped a tear away from his eye. "Neither are we. All fleets. Stand your ground. Protect the _Normandy_ and Commander Shepard. Let's show these bastards what we're made of."

The bridge of the _Iowa_ cheered.

. . .

The Kodiak's engines were already firing up as Miranda came out of the elevator. Jack and Ashley stood in the hatch, waving her to hurry. "Move your ass, cheerleader! We don't have time!" Jack yelled.

Garrus was running ahead of her. What the hell was he doing there? Miranda pushed him in and closed the hatch. There wasn't time to argue. She saw full medical evac gear and some heavy weapons for good measure. Ashley knew her stuff.

As Miranda belted herself in, she asked, "Garrus, what the hell are you doing?"

"You left Jacob in charge of the _Normandy_. I left Randall on the forward guns. He looked like it was his birthday."

"Is he even qualified?"

"I trained him myself. He'll blow the wings off a gnat at half a parsec."

As the squad put on their helmets and pressurized their suits, she heard Joker say, "We're going in. Get ready."

From the cockpit, Cortez said, "Hold on, everybody!"

The hangar bay doors opened. Quickly, Miranda saw a glimpse of one of the Citadel's arms, then Cortez fired the shuttle's thrusters and they were out.

Miranda had never felt so exposed in her life. Ships and deadly fire were everywhere. Allied ships. Reaper ships. Some of the technology was so alien that she couldn't tell what was friendly and what was Reaper. _That's simple enough_, she chided herself._ If it tries to kill you, it's Reaper. _

Cortez flew the Kodiak like an interceptor—then Miranda actually saw interceptors from the _Yorktown_'s wing form up around them. Three of them fired thrusters, flipped over and gave them covering fire.

Miranda held her breath as the Kodiak skidded in next to the breach that Garrus had shot away from the Citadel, going from full speed to dead stop in seconds.

"Shit, I gotta go driving with you, Esteban!" Vega said.

Miranda slid the hatch open and jumped the narrow gap to the Citadel. The edge of the space was charred, melted metal. Inside looked like a corridor. Miranda saw what looked like human body parts clinging to support struts in the walls. Frozen scarlet muck on the ground confirmed it.

Grunt, Ashley and Jack automatically took point, with Tali and Miranda in the middle, and Garrus and Vega in the rear. Miranda's HUD showed EDI's map, their position, and an arrow to Shepard's position.

"No targets," Ashley said.

"Keep your eyes open."

"Roger that."

A blue haze covered the corridor. Ashley passed her arm through it. "Atmosphere seal." She hurried through. "We've got air."

"Helmets stay on just in case."

"Got a door," Jack said.

"Tali," Miranda said. The quarian hurried forward and began working the door's controls.

"Wonder where we are," Garrus said.

"Someplace we were never meant to be," Ashley mused.

From outside, explosions that were too close for comfort lit up the corridor.

"Got it!" Tali said.

The door opened. Inside was what looked like a bridge over an electrical furnace. Ashley, Grunt and Jack ran in, guns pointed ahead, while the others followed, covering above and behind them. Storms of crimson arcs the size of buildings flashed over rising and falling power cells. Thunder crashed everywhere. It felt they were inside a cross between a music box and a tesla coil gone mad.

The Crucible was about to unleash it all on the Reapers.


	5. Annihilation Assured

"YOU HAVE ASSURED YOUR ANNIHILATION."

As thick as battlefield jamming, Harbinger's voice rang through every com channel in the Sol system. Terrified soldiers on the ground wondered what the hell was about to happen.

The battle in space turned into untold carnage. The Reapers charged forward, trying to reach the Citadel. The fleet let them in, then shot them from all directions. As the Reapers died, they changed tactics, turning and ripping apart everything they could reach. They fought with the desperation of those about to die.

Hackett appreciated the irony in that. As the _Iowa_ rocked under another hit, he hoped he would live to enjoy the memory.

"YOU AND YOUR KIND ARE NOTHING."

The dreadnoughts _Pennsylvania_ and _Odinn_ fell under attack from three Reapers. Their battle groups destroyed one of the Reapers outright. Geth and quarian fighters fell upon the second like hornets. The asari cruiser _Nefrane_ filled the gap for the _Odinn_, striking the third Reaper broadside. As it came about, the human battle groups fired at it again, striking it in the head. More Reapers were coming. Quarian ships rushed at them.

"YOUR MEMORIES WILL BE LOST. DUST OF DUST."

The geth fleet severed its data link to the rest of the consensus. On Rannoch and in deep space, the consensus initiated shutdowns of its data cores. If synthetic life would be destroyed, perhaps lifelessness would save the geth. It was a logical possibility, if an improbable one. The creators believed in miracles. The geth did not. However, with all other alternatives tending toward zero, the improbable was preferable to the impossible.

"YOU WILL VANISH FROM ETERNITY."

Captain Holland sweat as the _Sarajevo_'s damage control feed showed spreading hull breaches and atmosphere loss from a swarm of oculi cutting into the hull. And soon, giant, mechanical intruders. "Get marines down to those sections!" he said. He still nodded with satisfaction as they and the turian Second Fleet wounded a Reaper trying to run the blockade. Holland glanced at the Citadel on the tactical display. _Come on, Shep. Get out of there._

"YOU WILL BE SWEPT AWAY."

"I'd pay a year's salary to shut him up," Commander Phillips said. His fighter bumped and his panel turned green as he finished reloading. Phillips released docking clamps and fired his engines to get back into the fight. Other members of the fighter wing flew past him, flying back to the carrier to get more ammunition. He headed for where he could do the most good: the Citadel. It was a good thing they only had a few minutes until the Crucible fired. _Saratoga_'s fighters had almost no more missiles left to fire.

"EMBRACE YOUR DESTRUCTION."

Captain Fob coughed in the smoke filling the CIC. He leaned over his dead weapons officer to fire the main batteries again. The battle group had positioned itself four hundred meters away from the _Normandy_ team's shuttle. The cruisers switched their ammunition to full defensive fire, using its guns to throw up a curtain of steel fragments that blasted anything coming near the Citadel. It worked on the small stuff but all it did was make the big Reapers angry. They had drawn a lot of attention.

"_Nuremberg_, this is the _Aurora_," an asari asked over the command channel. "Do you require assistance?"

"Just doing our job, _Aurora. _Cover our cruisers. They need the help more than we do."

"Will do, _Nuremberg_. Stay strong."

. . .

The team fanned out as they entered what looked like a gallery at the top of the stairs leading up from the reactor chamber.

"Looks like three bodies," Ashley said. "Oh God. There he is."

Miranda ran through to the front of the team. "Jack, Vega, check those other bodies," she said. Grunt was already breaking out the evac stretcher. Shepard lay face down at the base of a console covered with prothean symbols. Pools of his blood spotted the floor.

Ashley and Miranda gently rolled Shepard over. Miranda was grateful for her ice princess demeanor. The hologram had looked bad, but Shepard looked worse in person.

Ashley scanned Shepard with her omni tool while Miranda unpacked a medical kit. "Bullet wounds in the belly. Major blood loss. Injuries all over his body but nothing else that'll kill him."

"Vitals?"

"Shitty."

Miranda smeared the bullet wounds with medigel, then injected him with a compound of synthetic blood, painkillers, and wound sealant. Ashley slapped down a field bandage to stop the bleeding. She wrapped an oxygen mask around Shepard's face, then wrapped his head and hands with duraplas bags to protect him from vacuum.

"Shit, it's Anderson. He's dead," Vega said.

"This one's the Illusive Man. Dead," Jack said. "Looks like he went apeshit with Reaper implants."

The stretcher was ready. Miranda and Ashley lifted Shepard onto it and started belting him down.

"Should we take Anderson's body?" Garrus asked.

"There's no time. Vega, Grunt, pick up Shepard and haul ass. Everyone go!" Miranda hurried over to Anderson's body. She found dog tags. "I'm sorry, sir," she said. She took the tags, gave him a quick salute and sprinted for the exit.

. . .

Shepard cried out to the sound of thunder. He saw fire everywhere. He tried to scream but he barely had the strength to move

"He's awake."

Vega?

"We're here, John. Hang on."

Miranda?

"Shouldn't... shouldn't have come...," Shepard mumbled.

"Shut up, Shepard," Grunt said.

Shepard looked up. Grunt grinned down at him. He was on a medical stretcher. That was why he couldn't move. Shepard recognized the numb feeling of battlefield painkillers and the gooey relief of medigel on his wound. They were running through the power chamber that he'd crossed on the way into the control room. The chamber looked like an inferno. Another crash of red lightning and thunder shocked him again.

Shepard dimly remembered arming the Crucible. Wait... then he sent a message. As the puzzle came together, he had seen how the Crucible was tied to the Citadel, and the Citadel was tied to the Reapers. And how to communicate the way Reapers did. Using it had taken all the strength he had left. It had sure pissed off Harbinger too. It had shown his true colors, bloody and crystalline, just as Shepard passed out.

They ran back through the corridor where he'd seen the bodies. Suddenly they were inside a Kodiak. Where the hell did it come from? Vega and Grunt practically threw him down to the deck, bolting the stretcher to the floor.

Shepard watched them pile in behind him. Ash. Jack. Tali. Miranda. Garrus slammed the hatch. Everyone held on as Cortez—only Cortez could fly a Kodiak like that—shot them away.

The cabin pressurized. Miranda took off the duraplas while Ashley and Garrus checked his vitals. Miranda took his hand. "Look at me. Breathe."

"Thirty seconds," Tali said.

"I could really do without the countdown," Jack said.

Shepard could barely speak. He formed the word, "Miri." Her chin trembled. She nodded and gently touched his face. Shepard managed a smile. He squeezed her hand.

He heard Cortez say, "_Normandy_, extraction team is inbound. Where the hell are you?"

Joker replied, "Keep your shirt on. It's a little crowded up here. Hold your course and keep going!"

Shepard caught a glimpse of Cortez's view screens. It was the most incredible thing he'd ever seen. Hundreds of ships. Thousands. The human ships formed a channel of fire and steel around the shuttle. Asari protected the humans. Turians protected the asari. Side by side, the geth and quarians clawed at the Reapers. The salarians and other races darted everywhere in between.

_They did this...for me?_

Cortez suddenly yelled, "SHIT!" and pitched the shuttle over. Momentum threw people back against the hull. The red, sizzling beam of a Reaper weapon filled the cockpit screen. Shepard almost heard the beam scraping the Kodiak's hull. "Where the hell did that come from?"

Cortez corkscrewed their flight path and sent them back the way they came. The beam followed them. "Damn it!" Cortez hissed. He pitched the Kodiak straight to the left. The Reaper flew past them. Cortez flew back the other way, dancing a tango with thrusters and beam fire.

"That Reaper doesn't just want to kill. It's after Shepard," Garrus said.

Miranda looked at Shepard. Like she always did, she read his mind. It had to be Harbinger.

. . .

"SHEPARD! YOU WILL JOIN US IN OBLIVION!"

Harbinger sacrificed two other Reapers to open a hole in the blockade. It charged through the gap, singling out the shuttle and ignoring everything else in its path. The Reaper's black fury smothered the thoughts of everyone near it like burning tar.

"I WILL TEAR YOU APART!"

The _Iowa_'s tactical officer cried, "Reaper inside the blockade! Target scan says it's Harbinger! Repeat, Harbinger!"

Hackett ordered, "Concentrate fire on that Reaper!"

Firing orders chorused throughout the fleet.

"Taste the wrath of the Goddess!" said Matriarch Lidanya.

"Burn him to ashes!" said Admiral Meridus.

"Time to finish the job. All ships, target Harbinger!" said Captain Fob.

"Battle group, kill that son of a bitch!" said Captain Holland.

"Alpha Mike Foxtrot, you piece of shit!" said Commander Phillips.

Tactical nukes, warp bombs, mass-driven steel and energy lances shredded Harbinger from every direction. The first Reaper screamed in rage and despair. Black blood sprayed from Harbinger's head, freezing into obsidian shards in the cold of space. Pieces of its head and body were obliterated. One of its tentacles blew off. Then another. Harbinger fired wildly, blindly, looking in desperation for Shepard. Another volley crashed into its maw, and something deep inside the Reaper burst. Molten fire poured out of its body. Harbinger screeched a long, keening wail as it twisted, cracked open, and finally died. Legend would have it that the very last shot was fired by the SSV _Normandy_, fighting its way to pick up its commander.


	6. The End and the Beginning

"Ya like that, Harbinger?" Joker cried. He pulled the _Normandy_ up and came around the top of the dead Reaper's body as the shuttle came out from Harbinger's back side. Joker lined them up perfectly. Cortez had once told him that he could land a Kodiak on the _Normandy_ blindfolded. This time he practically had to. There wasn't time to do it by the numbers.

Joker felt a thump through the deck as the shuttle landed. "Shuttle on board. Securing airlocks and cargo bay doors," EDI said. Joker's heart pounded. The indicators for the cargo bay went to green.

"Get us out of here, Joker. Medical team to the cargo bay!" Jacob said.

Joker took them to FTL before he finished his first sentence. Almost immediately he had a radiation warning behind the ship.

Joker pushed the _Normandy_ to full speed. The radiation warning showed that the wave was gaining on them.

"EDI, you'd better shut down," Joker said.

"No, Jeff. You need me to help bring the _Normandy_ out of FTL."

"I flew this baby solo before you came on board. I can handle it."

"Not at this speed. The SR-2's top speed is 15% faster than the SR-1."

"I know that, EDI." The radiation was getting closer.

EDI began making adjustments as well as Joker. The ship began shaking. "The radiation is making our FTL field unstable. You need me to help control the ship."

"EDI, we don't know what'll happen when that radiation gets here."

"I won't risk losing you."

"Shit...," Joker pushed the _Normandy_ to 105% speed. "Adams, I'm going to need more."

"You've got it, Joker."

110%. The roar of the _Normandy_'s engine filled the ship. Even if the engine could handle it, could the ship? He slowly edged it up to 115%, waiting for Adams or EDI to yell there was a problem. EDI adjusted their drive field with him to keep the ride steady. He trimmed the engines so that they gained power at the same time.

The radiation had closed half the distance and was still coming steadily towards them.

"More, Adams!"

Over the com line, he heard Adams say, "Daniels! Donnelly! Flood the coolant tubes at full and hold it there." He yelled at the engine, "Come on, you _bosh'tet_, I know you can do it!"

"_Bosh'tet_?" Joker said blankly.

"I believe Tali taught Engineer Adams some quarian epithets for good luck," EDI said.

The radiation felt seemed to be slowing down. They had almost matched speed. Joker nudged it to 116%. The engine roar turned higher in pitch. They were going faster than any ship had ever gone short of a mass relay jump.

It was right behind them.

117%. Joker took EDI's hand. His instincts told him that _Normandy_ didn't have any more to give, not without destroying the ship. They'd either make it or they wouldn't. "Not today, EDI. Not today."

Engine readouts and structural limits went from green to yellow. He and EDI looked at each other.

Jacob asked, "Joker, have we got this?"

"Give me a second, sir. You'll know when I know."

The distance to the field held steady. He squeezed EDI's hand.

Steady.

By inches, the _Normandy_ started to gain distance.

One of the engines went to red. A thrust valve was failing. Joker and EDI quickly adjusted to 110%, then to 100% on that engine and its parallel engine on the other side of the ship.

"Talk to me, Joker," Jacob said.

They were still gaining distance. The wave receded behind them, slower than Joker liked at first, then faster. "Yes... yes... yes! We did it! We did it! Crucible effect is behind us and all systems are nominal!"

People cheered all over the ship. Joker leaned over and kissed EDI. EDI's eyes widened. "Jeff, we need to fly the ship!" she protested.

He chuckled. "All right, all right..."

Jacob said, "Great job, both of you! Take us down to standard speed and bring us out of FTL when we reach the rendezvous point."

"Aye, aye, sir," Joker said. He turned back to his station and eased the _Normandy_ back down to a speed closer to "sane." Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that EDI had a broad smile on her face.

. . .

Shepard awoke to the sound of quietly beeping equipment. He felt thirsty and hungry. He felt a low, throbbing pain in his lower abdomen. Shepard opened and closed his fists. He tried moving his legs. He didn't have the strength to move them far. He felt exhausted, and aching all over.

Well, that was no surprise. He'd been hit by the edge of a Reaper beam, shot, thrown into orbit by a transport beam, had his nervous system held prisoner by the Illusive Man, nearly bled to death, and had his body drained of life like a water squeezed out of a sponge trying to send to a message to warn the geth. He'd had the longest day of his life. And been rescued from it.

He blinked open his eyes. He was in the medical bay. He heard footsteps, and the smiling face of Dr. Chakwas leaned over him. "Welcome back, Commander. How do you feel?"

Shepard coughed. "Good," he croaked. Yeah, right. His mouth tasted like glue. He coughed again. "Can I sit up?"

Dr. Chakwas adjusted his bed to lift his head up. A medic was getting him some water. Shepard felt lightheaded as the blood ran out of his head. He took deep, slow breaths. The feeling passed. Dr. Chakwas checked his vitals.

"What day is it? Where are we?"

"It's the day after the battle. We're in orbit around Earth."

The door opened. Miranda hurried in, followed by Garrus and Ashley. Dr. Chakwas must have called them when she saw him waking up. More were coming. Dr. Chakwas turned to the door. "I'm sorry, but everyone, back up! He needs to rest!"

Shepard looked over his shoulder at the windows to the mess hall. Zaeed and Inali were outside, along with mess sergeant Gardner and half a dozen of the crew. Everyone applauded, whistled and cheered. Shepard smiled. He started to wave, but his right arm was the one with the IV. He had to use his left instead. Shepard started coughing again, and gratefully accepted the water from the medic. Water had never tasted so good.

Dr. Chakwas looked at the crowd at the door. "No more than two at a time."

Garrus and Ashley looked at each other, because Miranda certainly wasn't turning away. They did paper rock scissors. Garrus chose paper and Ashley chose rock. Ashley said, "I had you pegged for scissors."

"Kind of guy I am. That's why I picked paper."

Ashley grumbled. She waved and said, "Looking good, skipper!" as she left the room.

Miranda gave him a light kiss, then pulled over a stool and sat down next to the bed, still holding his hand. Garrus stood behind her. Miranda wore a casual uniform, cargo pants and a collared shirt with short sleeves. She had bruises and bandages here and there, and one small band-aid on her arm. He could see she still ached.

"How do you feel?" Miranda asked.

"Pretty good. How about you?"

"I've got my share of bumps and cuts, but I'm all right."

He squeezed her hand. "Good. So, we're all still here. The Crucible worked?"

She smiled. "It did. The Reapers are dead. Everywhere."

"How did we get away from Harbinger?"

"The fleet ripped it a few new ones when it broke through the blockade," Garrus said. "The video is _glorious_."

Shepard smiled. "Couldn't happen to a better Reaper. I can't wait to see that." His smiled faded. "What about EDI? And the geth?"

"EDI's fine. We broke every speed record in the book getting out of the system," Miranda said.

"Most of the geth fleet was destroyed by the Crucible effect. Their fastest ships made it—they outran the effect like we did. No one knows about the rest of the consensus yet." Garrus added

Miranda continued, "The mass relays were damaged, so the comm buoy network is down. Long-distance communications have been by quantum entanglement. Short messages. Very limited. The whole fleet returned to Earth from the rendezvous."

Shepard nodded slowly. "I hope the geth are okay. I had... choices... when I armed the Crucible." He explained how Harbinger had spoken to him, and the alternatives that he'd seen.

Garrus' mouth hung open by the time he was finished. "Harbinger hid behind the face of a child? That coward. I don't care what it offered you. You did the right thing. The universe is better off without the Reapers," he said. He sounded like he was channeling Archangel, his vengeful alter-ego.

"It was certainly a gamble, for the geth and EDI," Miranda said. Thoughtfully, she continued, "Maybe we'll have synthesis someday. When we're ready for it—organics and synthetics alike."

"Controlling the Reapers would've been a fair turnabout, but who would I go drinking with then?" Garrus asked with a grin.

Shepard laughed, then he winced. "Ow. Oh, that hurts." He tried to breathe slowly and relax the muscles in his belly. He looked at Dr. Chakwas. "How am I doing, doc?"

"You're through the worst of it. The bullets went all the way through you, so I only needed to treat the wound. Your other injuries were extensive, though minor. You lost a lot of blood. I gave you a few pints of synth blood and the crew donated the rest." Shepard's eyes ticked to Miranda's band-aid. She winked at him. "I've conferred with several other physicians on exposure to Reaper technology from the transport beam, and that message you sent. So far you've exhibited no symptoms of side effects."

Thank God. "When can I leave?"

"We'll see how you feel tomorrow. While I'll discharge you from the medical bay, I want you under a strict rest protocol for two more days."

"Oh, jeez," Shepard moaned. He was more embarrassed than annoyed. Two days off sounded like heaven.

"I'm serious, Commander. Eight hours of sleep a day, no heavy lifting..."

"Yes. Doctor. Okay. Loud and clear," Shepard said. "Thank you."

Dr. Chakwas touched his hand. "Thank _you_, Commander. I think the whole galaxy needs to tell you that." She gestured to the medic and they both walked back to her desk on the far side of the medical bay.

Garrus said, "I'll leave you two. Do you want any more visitors?"

Shepard said, "After we're done. I'd like that. Thanks, Garrus."

The turian left the room. Shepard squeezed Miranda's hand. "Kiss me again?" he asked. He didn't think he could lift his head without passing out. She chuckled and did. "Thank you for coming to get me."

"You didn't think I'd leave you, did you?"

"Never. But I didn't even know if you were still alive. If anyone was still alive."

"We were, because of you."

"It wasn't because of me."

"Not all of it, but you brought us all together. Even the armada was because of you. If it wasn't for that, I don't think any of us would have made it."

"Thanks."

"You're quite welcome." Miranda squeezed his hand. "Get some rest. XO's orders. You have a big day tomorrow."

Shepard had been smiling, but as Miranda finished her words, he started to cry. Dizziness be damned, he reached his arms around her and wept.

Miranda was so shocked that at first she didn't even move. She wrapped her arms around him. "What is it?" she asked. He kept crying. "Talk to me, love. What is it?"

"I'm sorry. Maybe it's the meds. It's just... y'know, between the fight, and everyone who died, and you coming for me... I just remembered what it felt like when I was there on the Citadel. Dying there." He held her tighter. Shepard's voice cracked as he said, "I... I never thought about how much that word means."

"What word... what..." Miranda thought of what she'd said. Then she sighed, and he felt her tears on his cheek. Miranda kissed him there. She hugged him closer and whispered, "Tomorrow. We have tomorrow. And all the tomorrows after."


	7. Epilogue

**Shepard and Miranda** were married at her family's chateau in New South Wales less than a month after V-R Day. They continued to serve on the _Normandy_, rooting out pockets of Cerberus loyalists and turning the organization's old assets to the common good. Miranda's brainchild, the Infinity Group, became a nonprofit institute dedicated to cross-species liaison in science, diplomacy, and the arts. Four years after the mass relays were reactivated, their work at Infinity provided them an unexpected gift: quarian, geth, and salarian scientists working on techniques to help the quarians adapt to Rannoch found a technique based on the genophage cure that would restore Miranda's ability to have children. Miranda's fondest wish was granted a year later, when she gave birth to twins Kaiden and Jenna. Shepard and Miranda retired from military work to raise their family and run Infinity full-time. Miranda enjoys getting involved up to her elbows in diverse activities all over the galaxy, and Shepard likes putting his people skills to use doing something besides saving it. They love raising their children, and their work gives them both plenty of opportunities to travel and see Oriana and their friends from the _Normandy_.

**Garrus and Tali** left the _Normandy_ to move to Rannoch. Tali stepped down from her position on the Admiralty to become the mayor of one of the new communities. Garrus became the town marshal. They married and adopted two children, a turian and a quarian, shortly after. After serving two terms, Tali stepped down so that she could return to the technical tinkering that she so dearly loves. Garrus enjoys taking the kids exploring and teaching them to shoot, especially when Uncle Shepard and Aunt Miranda come to visit. The four of them stayed best friends for the rest of their lives.

**Ashley** was transferred by the Citadel Council to another frigate, the _Scimitar_, since having two Spectres on the same ship was a waste of their talents in a time when Spectres were sorely needed to help rebuild. She took command of the _Normandy_ after Shepard left and had a distinguished career, rising to the rank of captain and retiring before they could make her an admiral and put her behind a desk. She still works as a consultant helping to train new recruits, who widely consider her the most dangerous, most helpful instructor they ever had. She married and has three children—all boys, the first named after her father. She still reads and occasionally writes poetry.

**Jack** returned to the Grissom Academy to work with the Ascension Project full-time. (In my headcanon she didn't leave the Normandy until just before the start of ME3, when they heard the Reapers were coming.) She became the school's beloved black sheep, the teacher they were most embarrassed to have and yet most grateful for. Rumors that Jack's favorite students get tattoos after they graduate have never been confirmed. She and Shepard remained close friends, and while Miranda never truly felt close to her, Jack did help Miranda to get a tattoo of her own.

**Liara** dedicated the next several years to cataloguing the events and personal stories of the Reaper War. Her memoir of the war, _We Stood Together_, was a bestseller and praised as the seminal work on the era. She left her work as the Shadow Broker to Feron, who remained Liara's friend and confidante. She excelled in a variety of pursuits over the centuries of the rest of her life, usually in academic and diplomatic fields, and periodically consulting for Infinity. She married twice and has three children.

**Wrex** returned to Tuchanka to lead its reconstruction once the mass relays were repaired. In his absence, one of the clans rose against clan Urdnot in spite of their common cause in victory over the Reapers. Bakara led Urdnot and its allies and crushed the other clan utterly, which the remaining clans took as a symbol of Urdnot's strength. They proved to be a formidable pair and ruled their people wisely, if not nicely.

**Grunt** became Wrex's right hand. He rebuilt Aralakh company and was involved in several pitched battles with the rachni, which he considered second only to the Reaper War as the most fun in his life. Grunt became a legendary hero among krogan warriors, and was nicknamed by some "the krogan Shepard." He had several mates but never married.

**Vega** finished the N7 program, becoming a model soldier and doing Shepard proud. He transferred to the Alliance rapid response force, moving from colony to colony as the frontier continued to expand, having one adventure after another. He eventually married and took up a permanent post on a colony in the Terminus systems still too new to have a name.

**Cortez** stayed on the Normandy and saved both Shepard's and Ashley's bacon many more times. Shepard called him "the angel on my shoulder." He retired from military life and became a civilian pilot on the frontier. He remained best friends with Vega his entire life.

**Samara** continued to serve as a justicar for the next twenty years, bringing order to an uncertain galaxy in need of protection for the weak. Afterward, the asari asked her to serve as Councilor for the asari people, which she accepted. Her clear wisdom and unswerving dedication to justice led to her being considered by many historians to be one of the greatest Councilors of all time. A hundred years after the end of the Reaper War, genetic research would yield a treatment for the ardat-yakshi mutation. While still unable to have children, Samara's daughter Falere was able to leave the monastery and experience the gift of joining with others. Samara considered the day Falere left the monastery to be the happiest of her life.

**Joker and EDI** continued to fly the _Normandy_ until the ship was decommissioned in 2227. EDI's platform was upgraded using geth data storage to enable her to leave the _Normandy_ permanently. They now live at the Citadel, where Jeff is the highest-scoring player at the Armax Arsenal Arena and EDI can observe plenty of strange organic behaviors to ask Jeff about.

**Jacob** and Brynn—with Infinity's support—worked with former Cerberus scientists to help rebuild the Citadel. When the project was completed. They stayed there for several years after, Brynn working in a laboratory studying ancient power sources and Jacob working for C-Sec's search and rescue arm. In later days they settled on, of all places, Eden Prime, hoping to help make it the beacon of hope it was always meant to be.

**Kasumi** finally let go of Kagei's memory at the end of the war, seeing the lives that everyone was moving on to and the new opportunities opening up in the galaxy. She wanted to share in it as well. Kasumi wiped Kagei's greybox clean and gave it to Liara before leaving the _Normandy_. She couldn't think of anyone with better memories to share. She married later in life, and is still the least-known, most successful thief in the galaxy.

**Zaeed** stayed on the _Normandy_ long enough for Shepard to recover, so that he, Shepard, Garrus and Grunt could go drinking one last time. He then took his mercenary pay and vanished. Nobody knows what happened to him, but it is true that, less than a year later, Vido Santiago of the Blue Suns was assassinated, and less than a year after that, Aria T'Loak gained a new consort whose identity was unknown. Rumor has it that he's human and a lethal son of a bitch.

**Randall and Inali **married soon after the end of the Reaper War. Randall served as a special operations infiltrator for the Alliance, serving under Ashley on the _Scimitar_ and then the _Normandy_. He was a member of the insertion team that succeeded in capturing the former Cerberus Director whose experiments had included trying to forcibly convert Inali into a cyborg. Most details of the mission, including the Director's eventual fate, remain classified. Rumors that he was turned over to the krogans as punishment for his experiments on their species have never been confirmed. Inali worked as an electronics expert for the Alliance and remained lifelong friends with Jack, whom Inali described as "a wonderful, tattooed godsend" for her help during Inali's difficult recovery. After retiring from their military careers, Randall and Inali spent much of their time traveling and volunteering for aid organizations. Randall and Inali named their first daughter Jacqueline, after Jack, and asked Jack to be her godmother. When Jacqueline turned 18, Randall and Inali allowed her to get her first tattoo, from Jack.

**Kelly** became a licensed psychotherapist and social worker, helping people get back on their feet after the war while helping them recover from their emotional scars as well. Many civilians and veterans alike say that they owe her their lives—including Shepard, who called her by vidcom when some of his post-traumatic stress became too much in the early years after the war. Shepard was very fond of her and he and Miranda would make it a point to visit.

**Samantha** remained on the _Normandy_, moving from communications to intelligence analysis, using her keen tactical mind to ensure the team had the advantage in every situation. Ashley called her "the ace up my sleeve," a moniker that Samantha loved. When she retired from military service she made a fortune as a stockbroker, a profession she was ideally suited for. She later married. She and her wife adopted two children. They live in a house with a white picket fence and a golden retriever.

**Javik** went to the Cronian nebula to join his men, as he told Shepard he would... then returned. He realized that his purpose as the prothean avatar of vengeance had been fulfilled. He also admired the courage and sacrifice of the primitives in their final battle against the Reapers, and he felt that continuing to live would be the greatest testament to his people that he could give. Javik now wanders the galaxy as an avatar of hope and justice, similar to the asari woman Samara. He feels it is a role he is not worthy to bear, but shall anyway. Later in life he would marry an asari, and their children became the legacy of the protheans.

**Adams, Gabby and Donnelly** stayed on as the _Normandy_'s engineering team. Adams served under Shepard and Ashley and finished out his career on the _Normandy_, eventually retiring to a colony not too far from Earth. Gabby and Donnelly married and later left to join civilian life and help with rebuilding, working on civilian ships and in power plants. They have three children. All three are still friends with Tali.

**Anderson**'s body was found in the wreckage of the Citadel by salvage and repair teams. He was brought home to London, posthumously knighted, and buried next to his parents in a ceremony befitting the first human Councilor and the leader of the resistance on Earth. The entire _Normandy_ team attended, as well as the Citadel Councilors and other dignitaries from around the galaxy. Kahlee Sanders spoke a moving eulogy. The replacement for Arcturus Station was named Anderson Station in his honor, and his dog tags are preserved in a shrine at the British Museum.

**General History**

After the Crucible fired, Quarian search teams on Rannoch found no geth platforms operational and all data cores powered off, but completely undamaged. Unwilling to risk damaging the geth by tinkering with them while trying to help, they guarded the data cores and ensured they remained safe and undamaged until live geth returned to Rannoch a year later. One by one the data cores were brought back to life. To this day, Awakening Day is celebrated as a holiday to remember the reconciliation of the geth and quarians, and their restoration to life by geth and quarians working side by side.

In future years, the rachni and krogan would fight wars over several planets, many never known by the other races, as both began to expand into the same hostile environments they preferred living on. Ironically, this has been a good thing, since both enjoy the challenge of testing themselves, and this serves to keep their populations and aggressive instincts in check. A salarian analyst observed, "The krogan and rachni are the apex predators of our galaxy. It's a good thing their favorite prey is each other."

The Citadel Council governed from Thessia for the full decade that it took to repair the Citadel and learn to maintain it, since the Keepers were killed by the Crucible effect. The Citadel was eventually returned to its place in the Serpent nebula. Its repair and restoration to the nebula was the first of many landmark feats of galactic cooperation to come.

The restoration of the Citadel to its rightful place was also celebrated by the dedication of the Reaper War Memorial at the center of the Presidium: a circle of statues, men, women and children of all the races, standing together holding hands facing outward from a towering fountain. The fountain itself is behind a fence for safety reasons, but people are allowed to duck under the statues' arms and walk inside the circle to symbolically experience how we stood for one another in the war. The crew of the _Normandy_ gathered together again, as well as Admiral, now Councilor, Hackett, veterans from the final battle, and other heroes from across the galaxy. As the memorial fountain was turned on, children who were born after the end of the war ran inside the circle to play. Shepard pulled Miranda close, and said, "That's what we fought for."


	8. Special Thanks

SPECIAL THANKS TO:

Bioware, for making the most amazing game series that I've ever played.

MrFob and the Mass Effect modding community, for making the Mass Effect Happy Ending Mod.

FamilyJules7x for making heavy metal covers of "Suicide Mission," "Infiltration," and "An Ending: Once and For All;" and John Murphy, for making "Adagio in D Minor." These songs inspired me while writing the rescue scene.

Gerry Pugliese, for writing "Mass Effect: Vindication," which inspired this as well, especially the epilogue.

Steve Phillips, for his awesome feedback and contributions.

"Captain Holland" and "Captain Phillips" ;-).

And to you, for reading!


End file.
